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The rancid smell from your fridge and pantry has started to spread throughout your home so you decide to spend a few hours cleaning out & ridding yourself of old leftovers, rotting fruit & that moldy green cheese from last summer. All of the sudden your heart sinks as you find beer in the back of the fridge that you bought for your aunt’s, new husband’s, daughter’s garden party. You remembered that you really wanted to try that particular beer but after looking at the best by date (2/14/2006), a vision of beer being poured down the drain comes to mind…

Although old beer is still drinkable & won’t make you sick, it won’t be as tasty as the brewery intended. Old beer tends to oxidize (oxygen gets into the bottle) usually making it overly sweet, malty & losing a lot of the hop character that would be present with fresh beer.

Alas, do not fret or pour this beer down the drain…you can repurpose it!

1) Cure your lawn of brown spots – the acids in beer will help kill bugs & the fermented sugars will help promote green growth. Great if you have dogs that pee on your lawn.

2) Revive Wooden Furniture – flat beer makes a great wood reviver. Dampen a microfiber cloth with your flat beer then rub gently into your furniture. It will give it a polished glow & bring back some color too.

3) Wash your pillowcases in it – apparently the smell of hops help you fall asleep. If you’re an insomniac, try washing a pillowcase in an old India Pale Ale (IPA) & you may just fall asleep faster than you think.

4) Cooking – if you like the taste of beer, imagine what food will be like if you add beer to your recipes. Try boiling bratwurst in beer, add a winter ale to chili, or try a dark porter or stout in a chocolate cake or cookies. Check out our recipes page on our website for more great cooking with beer ideas.

5) Beer Shampoo – so you’ve heard this before…beer adds shine & body to your hair without all of the chemicals. You can make your own beer shampoo at home:

*reduce a bottle of beer by heating it in a saucepan
*let it cool completely
*mix beer in with 1 cup of your favorite shampoo
*wash hair rinsing well
*store in squeeze bottle in shower area

So a great take away from this story is: be sure to clean out your refrigerator more often as there may be tasty beer in there just waiting for a chance to get in your belly. If it is too late and that beer is just too old, use the tips above to put a smile back on your face and the beer in your hair, or in your food, or in your lawn, or...